Another "smoker" here. Thought nothing of it the first one or two times it happened. This weekend at the parents' house which has a somewhat steep driveway, it happened again and my parents commented on it. Huge white puff of smoke came out after firing up the car, which had been sitting nose-up for about 8 or 9 hours.

I recently purchased a 2013 JGC Limited w/5.7 Hemi (09/2012) and it too has the “blue smoke on start-up” syndrome when parked on a hill with nose-up. A generous amount of smoke is produced from both tail pipes when parked nose-up. This occurs with a hot or cold engine. I have not attempted to park nose down and see if the smoking condition occurs.

At present (10/18/2012) I have ~1,650 miles on the vehicle, to date, If I start it on a level surface I don't get any smoke. @ 1,650 I changed my oil using 7 qts. of Penzoil conventional 5W-20 (Chrysler MS-6395 approved) and Mopar MO-899 Filter, so we’ll see if the problem persists.

My Jeep has the QL system and I noticed that when parked nose-up the front air suspension deflates in an attempt to level the vehicle (which it doesn’t fully do on the incline I park on); regardless, in my case, smoke is still produced.

Questions: 1.) Has anyone else with a 2013 JGC, 5.7 have this issue? 2.) Does this condition occur in any of the HEMI Rams? HEMI cars? or the SRT HEMI JGCs?

Please advise.

After reading every post in this thread (on 10/18/2012) I have summarized the symptoms and attempted repairs with results:The Problem: Blue smoke on startup for a short period of time (seconds, maybe a minute… unless you leave it idling for ½ hr then smokes for a longer period of time but clears up as reported in Post #17 by jimss_409).* Years exhibiting problem: 2011, 2012, 2013 (me)* Occurs in high (~31k mi) and low (~1 to 6 k mi) mileage vehicles.* Occurs with factory fill oil and other oils including synthetics.* Occurs with warm or cold engine (my post and post # 21 by peckmv)* Majority of posts indicates problem only occurs when parked on incline with the nose-up; one post indicated this occurred on dead-flat ground (Post #28 by gokart508). Some indicate that the problem ONLY occurs with nose-up, and does not occur with level or nose-down (per post # 81 by peckmv).

Possible Cause(s) / Suggested Remedies (as of 10/18/2012):Possible Cause #1 – Poor Air/Oil Seperator (AOS) system “…causing pooling of oil [location not specified] due to low manifold vacuum at idle…” (actually manifold vacuum is very high at idle due to closed throttle plate; however, intake air velocity is very low). Possible Remedy for #1: suggested in Post #26 by JRoll1ns - Install Aftermarket Catch Can (introduced in Post #9 by suzieque) and elaborated on by Post #26 by JRoll1ns. Some have stated this worked for them (Post #31 by dnizzle2010, Post #39 by bmrisko on 5.3L Chevy Tahoe). Please note Post #46 by peckmv installed a catch can and it did not eliminate the problem. Possible remedy #2 for Problem #1 – replace PCV Valve (dealer) but did not work as evidenced by post #129 & 130 by rpoverland.

Possible Cause #2 – Problem with Valve Seals “…If a car sits for a long period of time and the valve stems seals are worn oil drips past them and into the combustion chamber. When you start up in the morning a quick cloud of blue smoke for just a second…” proposed in Post #36 by toy4two. Possible Remedy for #2 – possibly replace valve seals with different design (posi-lock type). To date (10/18/2012) no one has had this performed.

Possible Cause #3 – MDS somehow causes this issue – not sure of the basis for this theory but *if* the MDS is disabled while in tow/haul mode the problem still occurs enabled per post #103 by peckmv.

Possible Cause #4 – Design of the Oil Pan – “…It seems to be caused by the design of the oil pan (as others pointed out not just Mopar, seems other mfgs have the same issues). The hemi uses a front sump oil system meaning that the pan has the 'jug' in the front and the thin part of the oil pan in the back of the engine. When parked level, with the nose down, or on slight inclines the oil pan has enough angle for the oil draining out of the back of the engine to hit the pan and drain down to the sump area at the front of the pan. When the vehicle is parked with the nose up, say over 10-15 degrees, the natural gravity drain angle of the pan is negated(i.e. leveled out) causing a minute amount of oil to remain pooled in the thin section of the pan near the back of the engine. So when you restart the vehicle, say after an hour or so, that pool gets splashed and hits the piston skirts causing a smoking condition for the first few minutes/seconds of operation…” as described in post # 76 by Jahkneefive.

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Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but there's a similar topic on another forum regarding this issue, and in August someone there claimed to have spoken with a Chrysler engineer who said that the full "actual fix" will be available in early 2013. When someone else later in the thread asked if there were any updates regarding the issue, a member who apparently works in "Customer Care" at Chrysler referred to that guy's post, saying that "pretty much sums it up", which suggests (to me) that the info is accurate and a final fix will indeed be made available pretty soon.

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